Carlyle, Seven Scrap Sale of Australia’s Coates Hire

Seven, controlled by billionaire Kerry Stokes, and Carlyle
“remain fully committed to the business,” Sydney-based Seven
said in a statement today. The companies each own 45 percent of
Coates.

Coates, which was acquired for A$1.7 billion ($1.6 billion)
in 2008, hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in November to advise on
the sale. The owners were seeking more than A$3 billion, a
person familiar with the matter said at the time. UMW Holdings
Bhd., Malaysia’s biggest carmaker and assembler, was among
companies studying a bid, separate people with knowledge of the
matter said last month.

Mergers and acquisitions involving Australian companies
fell to their lowest level in nine years in the first quarter as
the nation’s mining boom slows amid declining commodity prices.
The value of deals fell to $9.7 billion in the three months to
March from a year earlier, according to data compiled by
Bloomberg.

The Bureau of Resources and Energy Economics projected in a
May 22 report that investment has peaked after A$150 billion of
mines were delayed or scrapped in the past 12 months. This year,
Australian mining support companies Boart Longyear Ltd. (BLY),
Transfield Services Ltd. and UGL Ltd. said the deferral of major
projects would impact earnings.

Coates has more than 200 branches around the country,
according to the company’s website. Nomura Holdings Inc. (8604) and
China International Capital Corp. were appointed to assist
Goldman in canvassing buyers in Japan and China, Seven said in a
November statement.

Seven and Washington-based Carlyle had also studied an
initial public offering of Coates, two people with knowledge of
the matter said in July.